1. Field of the Invention
Embodiments of the present disclosure generally relate to a system and method of collaboration. More specifically, embodiments of the present disclosure relate to a system and method of enhancing collaboration experiences by relatively seamlessly teleporting between federation (2-D) collaboration environments and virtual 3-D collaboration environments.
2. Description of the Related Art
Collaboration is a major form of communication, where two or more individuals or groups work together in an intersection of common goals by sharing knowledge, information, learning, and building consensus. As the world becomes more connected with global computer networks such as the internet, wire and wireless networking, and the like, collaboration between and among individuals and groups, crossing disparate geographical locations, has become the norm to effectively accomplish complex and sophisticated tasks.
A common approach to enable collaboration between and among individuals and/or groups is through a “2-D” or “federation” collaboration environments, e.g., Google Wave or Google Shared Spaces in Google Labs, in which a joint collaboration environment may be created by connecting each group together according to a federation protocol, e.g., XMPP Inter-Domain Federation Protocol, as described in XEP-0238 and used in the Google Wave Federation protocol. The 2-D collaboration can be, by way of example only, a live, shared space on a global computer network, such as the internet, where individuals and groups may discuss and work together using and exchanging formatted text, instant messaging, photos, videos, maps, and more.
The federated collaboration environment may include equal parts of conversation and exchange of documents, including group chat, contact and document sharing. Any participant may reply anywhere in the message, edit the content, and add participants at any point in the process. There may also be a history feature in this 2-D environment that allows a participant to preserve who said what and when, for instance. With live transmission as a user types on his/her keyboard, participants can have relatively fast conversations, see edits and interact with extensions in real-time.
In collaboration through federation, however, each group retains its own individual identity, governing body, physical environment, and management infrastructure. And each group collaborates under a joint commitment to work together on a common task, and use the federation protocol to share media and information crossing all groups and participants.
Although this type of collaboration environment using a federation protocol is a common approach for collaboration between and among groups, this collaboration paradigm has some fundamental limitations. For example, the collaboration capabilities in federations are constrained by the capabilities of each individual and/or group by the physical environment each is in, and by the discrepancy in the management infrastructure used by each.
Consequently, the flexibility and robustness (i.e., “richness”) of the federated collaboration environment is upper bounded by the common denominator (not the union) of the capabilities in each group, which is convoluted with various factors, e.g., media, physical environment, registration, resources, and the like. This limitation is fundamental in collaboration through federation, no matter whether it is in 2-D or 3-D environment. This makes truly rich, dynamic and enhanced collaboration difficult to achieve through federation, and it is not truly extensible as federation can put further constraints in collaboration when new groups are added or software modules need to be downloaded to facilitate a collaboration session in federation. Prior known solutions are limited by the physical limitations or common denominator features of each individual or group in collaboration.
Rich, 3D-type collaboration environments are also known, such as, for example only, the web.alive product, available from Avaya, Inc. (See web.alive, Ver. 2.5). In such environments, the collaboration experience is enhanced. However, certain of the limitations discussed with respect to the 2-D environment exist in this 3-D environment as well. Significantly, heretofore, there are no known systems or methods for transitioning or teleporting virtually seamlessly between 2-D federation collaboration environments and 3-D, “web.alive-like” collaboration environments, such that a participant or group can experience an enhanced collaboration experience with virtually seamless transitions to and from each type of collaboration environment.
Thus, there is a need for a system and method that does not necessarily depend on, or is limited by, the physical environment of each individual and/or group in collaboration in a federation-type, 2-D environment, but may enable rich collaboration in a coordinated and substantially instantaneous manner between a 2-D federation environment to a virtual 3-D environment, while overcoming the common denominator constraint in the paradigm of collaboration through federation.